Media Insider: Meta fined for transferring data, The Daily Wire heads to Twitter, WaPo creates AI teams
Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s roundup of media news stories from the week.
Photo by Muhammad Asyfaul on Unsplash
Meta fined record $1.3 billion and ordered to stop sending European user data to US
Associated Press | Kelvin Chan
The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine and ordered it to stop transferring users’ personal information across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decade-long case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears. The penalty is the biggest since the EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago. Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold. The decision applies to user data like names, email and IP addresses, messages, viewing history, geolocation data, and other information that Meta – and other tech giants like Google – use for targeted online ads.
Speaking of Meta: The company has agreed to sell Giphy to Shutterstock for around $53 million in cash.
Musk scores Daily Wire’s full set of podcasts to put on Twitter
Axios | Sara Fischer
The Daily Wire, a conservative media and entertainment company, plans to put its entire slate of podcasts, which are almost all recorded as videos, on Twitter beginning May 30. While Daily Wire clips continue to be uploaded to YouTube and other social platforms, full video podcast episodes for all shows will only appear on Twitter and DailyWire+, the company’s paywalled content platform that also supports its podcast network. Some podcast programs will continue to appear on YouTube and the conservative video site Rumble. Each Daily Wire show will have its own Twitter account set up to distribute the show and to tweet out the show’s sponsors, often with a call to action, such as texting a number for more information. For now, the videos for “The Matt Walsh Show” — which typically last around an hour — are being livestreamed and made available for playback. In the future, because Twitter Blue subscribers can upload videos up to two hours in length, the Daily Wire may be able to upload shows instead of having to livestream them.
Also from Axios: BuzzFeed is launching an online retail site with Verishop.
New York Times union reaches tentative deal with the newspaper
Reuters | Akanksha Khushi
The New York Times Guild said it has tentatively struck a new contract agreement with the New York Times, marking the end of more than two years of negotiations. The deal, if ratified, will raise the median salary of a NewsGuild member to $136,220 and to $160,011 for reporters and correspondents in the union, according to a note sent by the newspaper’s deputy managing editor Cliff Levy to union members. Other benefits include an overall 18.4% increase in salary, new job categories for reporters and editors, and the doubling of fertility benefits to $50,000, according to the deal. Under the deal, the Times will also allocate more than $100 million in new spending for NewsGuild members, Levy said in the note.
Hearst Magazines also reached a collective bargaining agreement with the Writers Guild of America East, the first union contract with the company after two years of negotiations.
Semafor Raises $19 Million, Replacing Money From Sam Bankman-Fried
The New York Times | Benjamin Mullin
Semafor, the digital-media startup, has raised $19 million from investors including Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, replacing the money it had received from the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried. The money from Bankman-Fried, roughly $10 million, will be placed in an account separate from Semafor’s other funding and returned to his creditors at the direction of the authorities. In addition to Mr. Yang, Semafor’s new investors include Henry Kravis, a co-founder of the private equity giant KKR; Jamal Daniel, owner of the Middle East news website Al-Monitor; Jorge Paulo Lemann, a co-founder of 3G Capital; and Stand Together, a network of business leaders founded by the entrepreneur Charles Koch. The polling organization Gallup is also an investor. The investors have ties to both political parties, with Yang a regular donor to Democrats and Koch a major contributor to conservative causes.
Read next: Tensions flare inside The Messenger, a fledgling news site.
The Washington Post Creates Two Teams to Drive AI Progress
MediaPost | Ray Schultz
The Washington Post has created two cross-functional teams – one strategic, one operational – to foster AI innovation. Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan announced the development, saying it is “only the first step in establishing AI as a priority opportunity for The Washington Post.” The AI Taskforce will meet regularly to provide governance, direction, and insights about AI usage throughout The Washington Post. The AI Hub will be an operational team from across the company created to expedite the Post’s AI initiatives and foster cross-functional cooperation. It will consist of a small full-time team and “matrixed resources” from across the company. Ryan notes that the Hub will be “accountable for coordinating efforts and ensuring alignment of our AI projects with the strategies, guardrails, and priorities established by the AI Taskforce, while also focusing on future innovation.”
ICYMI: CNN has launched CNN Fast, a free ad-supported streaming television channel, in Europe.
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Maria Perez is director of web operations at Cision. In her spare time, she enjoys gaming, watching too much TV, and chasing squirrels with her dog Cece.
